Fitting COVID-19 Safety Into Everyday Life

By Diane Lee, Public Information Officer, Garrett County Health Department

With the Federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declaration ending on May 11, 2023, the CDC is shifting from an emergency response to incorporate COVID-19 activities into everyday public health practices. The State of Maryland, as well as most counties, are following suit.

In Garrett County, links are still available at garretthealth.org/covid-19-information/ to schedule COVID-19 vaccines and tests at the Garrett County Health Department. Take home COVID-19 tests are also available at no cost at all branches of the Ruth Enlow Library of Garrett County and at the health department. Persons may also check with their primary care providers for vaccines and testing.

The Garrett County Health Department recommends that everyone 6 years and older should get one updated Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of whether they’ve received any original COVID-19 vaccines.

Current Garrett County vaccination rates for COVID-19:

• 17,567 (60.5 %) have received at least one dose
• 15,398 (53.1%) have received at least two doses or a single Johnson & Johnson dose
• 8,239 (28.4%) have received a booster dose
• 3,541 (12.1%) have received an updated bivalent booster dose

Individuals who may need an additional vaccine include:

• People aged 65 years and older may get one additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine four or more months after the first updated COVID-19 vaccine.
• People who are moderately or severely immunocompromised may get one additional dose of updated COVID-19 vaccine two or more months after the last updated COVID-19 vaccine. Talk to your healthcare provider about additional updated doses.

When are you up to date?

Everyone aged 6 years and older is up to date when they receive one updated Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

Children aged 6 months—5 years who got the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are up to date if they are:

• Aged 6 Months—4 years and you get three COVID-19 vaccine doses, including at least one updated COVID-19 dose.
• Aged 5 years and you get at least one updated COVID-19 vaccine dose.

Children aged 6 months—5 years who got the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are up to date when they get two Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses, including at least one updated COVID-19 vaccine dose.

People who are unable or choose not to get a recommended mRNA vaccine are up to date when they get the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine doses approved for their age group.

People who got the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine are up to date when they get one Moderna or Pfizer Bivalent COVID-19 vaccine.

What are “updated” vaccines?

Updated vaccines, sometimes called “bivalent” vaccines are called “updated” because they protect against both the original virus that causes COVID-19 and the Omicron variant BA.4 and BA.5. Two COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, have developed updated COVID-19 vaccines.

Should I get a vaccine if I had COVID?

Those who have recently had COVID-19 still need to stay up to date with their vaccines, but they may consider delaying their next vaccine dose by 3 months from:

• when symptoms started.
• or, if they had no symptoms, when they first received a positive test.

Reinfection is less likely in the weeks to months after infection. However, certain factors could be reasons to get a vaccine sooner rather than later, such as:

• personal risk of severe disease,
• or risk of disease in a loved one or close contact,
• local COVID-19 hospital admission level,
• and the most common COVID-19 variant currently causing illness.

For information on isolating and quarantining visit https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/isolation.html